Little Ashes

Little Ashes for me was an interesting, enjoyable and rather spontaneous experience, having picked up a pamphlet recently for the Outtakes Film Festival I later discovered that it was a "reel queer film festival" which made for an interesting night. When I began these blogs I was determined to look at and review things that I would not normally visit so as far as I was concerned this was a good opportunity, the next step was convincing a friend to come with me and I cleverly enlisted my sister with the promise of going and seeing a Robert Pattinson Movie, "Little Ashes."



I must say that a lot of the patronage did come from the LGBT community as was to be expected when the film was part of this festival and it was quite a new experience to be in the minority on this occasion. As for the movie I thought it was fantastic, it was directed by Paul Morrison and starred the aforementioned Robert Pattinson as artist Salvadolr Dalí and Javier Beltrán as poet Federico García Lorca. It wasn't my usual movie but turned out to be one of my favorites from what I have viewed this year and I think although it definitely wouldn't be for everyone if you go in with an open mind it is quite enjoyably different.

A story of the lives of famous Spaniards Dali and Lorca, the film in initially set in 1920's Madrid at the art school the two attend. The two young men fall in love at a time that homosexuality is unacceptable and although they obviously share a great love for on another they find themselves unable to be together physically, immediately followed by Dali leaving for Paris. Both go on to become great and famous men of their time with their work challenging the perceptions of their time. You find yourself spending the whole movie frustrated that the two men will never be together and really engaging with Lorca, a sweet but strong character who campaigns for the right to love who you want to and in the end ends up being a casualty of the Spanish Revolution. Dali himself makes the viewers feel pity, he swings back and forth from being painfully shy to an eccentric braggart all along seeming desperately unfulfilled. The film makes sure to show plenty of the famous works from both men, the poetry of Lorca is recited in both Spanish and English and is quite beautiful, comparatively the work of the talented Dali is truly odd and rather surreal, he found a lot of luck as a new age artist as he was producing works that were a far cry from the traditional art taught at the time.

This film further encouraged me to look up of some of Dali's work, a lot of the work, like the man who painted it is quite off but put in the context of the time I would suppose it was quite revolutionary. I think the eccentricity of the man as he is portrayed really shows through in his work, he uses a lot of colour and images that appear somewhat distorted from reality.

All in all I thought it was a really beautiful film, there have been a lot of mixed reviews but I think it was deep, crazy and really quite powerful. It managed to tackle themes of love, freedom, acceptance, politics and art all in one film. I think watching films like this that are based on history really makes you appreciate the freedom that we are afforded today and that we don't have to go to such great lengths to hide or exert yourself.

Although there is a lot of contention about the facts in this movie I think it would be quite inspiring if it were true that such famous and celebrated men were gay, I think love in any shape or form deserves the right to be celebrated and I think the movie did an excellent job in showing just how sad it is that this young romance never got the opportunity to become something more.